The UN Torture Fund assists fleeing victims of torture
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UN Voluntary Fund for Victims of Torture
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About Us
-
About UN Human Rights
- Mandate
- Mission
-
The High Commissioner
- Volker Türk, High Commissioner
- Nada Al-Nashif, Deputy High Commissioner
- Ilze Brands Kehris, Assistant Secretary-General
-
Past High Commissioners
- Michelle Bachelet Jeria, Chile, 2018-2022
- Mr. Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein, Jordan, 2014-2018
- Ms. Navanethem Pillay, South Africa, 2008-2014
- Ms. Louise Arbour, Canada, 2004-2008
- Bertrand Ramcharan (Acting High Commissioner)
- Mr. Sergio Vieira de Mello, Brazil, 2002-2003
- Mrs. Mary Robinson, Ireland, 1997-2002
- Mr. José Ayala-Lasso, Ecuador, 1994-1997
- Past Deputy High Commissioners
- Past Assistant Secretaries-General
- What we do
- Where we work
-
Funding and budget
- Our donors
- Funding trends
-
Trust funds
- Special Fund of the OPCAT
- UN Voluntary Fund for Indigenous Peoples
- UN Voluntary Fund for Technical Cooperation
- UN Voluntary Fund on Contemporary Slavery
-
UN Voluntary Fund for Victims of Torture
- Mandate
- About the Fund’s assistance for victims
- Board of Trustees
- How the Fund is managed
- Reports
- Activities
- 40th anniversary
- International Day in Support of Victims of Torture
- Videos
- Feature stories
- How to apply for an annual grant
- Annual grant cycle
- How to report on a grant
- Emergency grants
- How to contribute to the Fund
- Group of Friends
- Evaluation
- Memorial
Yusuf is receiving treatment in a torture rehabilitation Centre in Northern Lebanon. He was held captive and subjected to electric shock in Syria for allegedly taking part in protests.
“I was injected with some kind of substance so I stopped seeing… They laid me on a table and forced me to confess, repeatedly asking me ‘who told you to protest, who told you to come out to the streets?’,” said Yusuf.
“I told them as much as I could, but I felt I had to say anything to escape torture,” he said.
Torture in detention facilities across Syria by Government forces and some armed opposition groups is rampant, said UN Human Rights Chief Navi Pillay, during a press conference in April.
“In armed conflict, torture constitutes a war crime. When it is used in a systematic or widespread manner, which is almost certainly the case in Syria, it also amounts to a crime against humanity,” she said.
According to a report by the UN Human Rights Office, men, women and children have been routinely picked up from the street, their homes and workplaces, or arrested at Government-manned checkpoints.
Many are activists – often students – as well as lawyers, medical personnel and humanitarian workers, and some just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, the report states.
In another case, Abu Yazan was held in detention accused of being a terrorist.
“They inflicted electric shocks to my sexual parts and to my chest,” he said, adding that the worst part was living in a cell totally naked with about 64 men.
Today, both Yusuf and Abu Yazan are receiving rehabilitation services, including psychotherapy, as well as legal and social support at NGO Restart Center in Tripolit, Lebanon, which is one of many centers supported by the UN Fund for Victims of Torture across the world. In Lebanon, the Fund also supports the Lebanese Center for Human Rights (CLDH), which provides vital services to victims of torture, including from Syria.
In 2013, the UN Fund for Victims of Torture enabled the Restart Center to provide specialized assistance to 180 victims of torture from Syria and it hopes to reach at least an additional 150 this year.
“The UN Fund for Victims of Torture is a practical tool of the UN Human Rights Office to support torture victims in need of rehabilitation and assistance. The Fund responds, both rapidly and in the long term, to the plight of thousands of victims who would otherwise remain unattended and marginalized,” said Pillay.
Since its establishment in 1981, the UN Voluntary Fund for Victims of Torture, managed by the UN Human Rights Office, has awarded grants to more than 600 organizations, providing rehabilitation to more than 50,000 victims worldwide every year.
The UN International Day in Support of Torture is held annually on 26 June to speak out against the crime of torture and to honour and support victims and survivors around the world.
Names were changed to protect the victims.